Debt in the UK when you move to the USA?

[micmac 6]

I was contemplating this today. haha

I might move back in less than 6 years, and my mother lives in my house so leaving a load of debt under that address maybe wouldn't be the best plan!

I do feel the pain of the phone contracts. I will probably have to buy mine out from three. I despise three and dont really want to give them anything!

[fozzie 41]

I still have my student loans to pay off. I moved out to the US five years ago and I let them know. I still want to move back to England someday. I had heard rumors about it being wiped out after 10 years if I simply disappeared but I doubt it somehow. Anyway, I make payments based on my income from the prior year. The dowside to it is the exchange rates as they assess my income then convert to GBP so even though my income didnt go up the exchange rate moved and my repayments doubled. I hope it goes the other way next year.

[RachC 0]

I'll have my student loan and then the loan I took out for my Masters. Meant to be a five year repayment and i'll be two years into repaying it hopefully when I leave for the USA. I was thinking of just dumping what would last about two years of repayments into it and just let it pay itself merely because I would imagine i'll be coming back over before it runs out.

[newmrsvick 1]

I am in the same situation roughly with Student Loans (not yet started repaying but will write them a letter informing them of my move) and £7000 worth of credit card debts, that I have no intentions of running out on. So far my plan is to leave 4-5 months worth of minimum payments in my English bank account to pay off online until after Christmas, and then, erm, come up with a better plan? To be honest I was a bit worried about approaching my bank and asking for a new payment schedule in case they demanded I paid off the debt before I left (impossible, I don't have £7000)... So I still need to find a way to pay this off sensibly and from across the ocean. Is that theoretically a possibility? That they could ask for the whole repayment in one?

[Alex & Rachel 78]

Do you really need to inform your bank?

I never have... I have been making regular payments on my UK credit card by using paypal (I just transferred $500; according to Google at today's exchange rate that's 305 pounds, I got 298 pounds - doesn't seem too bad to me). I still have a UK address linked to my UK bank and I find it easier to just use my UK bank card when I'm over there.

[HighlandScott 7]

In a past life I worked in the personal insolvency sector (in the UK) and would say it's a myth that debts go away after 6, 10 or however many years. I had a client once that forgot he'd had a credit card with a bank 15 years ago. He dissapeared without paying it. Then he applied for a new credit card one day with the same bank and they said "ah ha!!, we've found you" - you owe us from 15 years ago and pursued him for the money. I think some companies VOLUNTARILY write off some debts if it gets to a certain point, however you have no legal right to tell them after x amount of time that the debt is no longer valid. There's nothing about that in any credit agreement.

I'll be moving to the US later this year. The only debt I have is a Student Loan. I've been reading their information this morning (http://www.studentloanrepayment.co.uk/portal/page?_pageid=93,3867143&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL) and as I understand it I have to pay 9% on any earning over £15000 (about $24400).

I worked this out to be, on an example of earning $30,000:

$30000 income

deduct $24400 threshold

= $5600

9% of $5600 = $504 per year ($42 per month)

Does anyone else pay a Student Loan from the US? Am I working this out right?

[Justine+David 218]

Yep, that's right. But it's only on your own personal income, not your spouse's. Because David didn't work the first year, we didn't have to pay any of his student loan.

Edited August 27, 2011 by Justine+David

[HighlandScott 7]

Yep, that's right. But it's only on your own personal income, not your spouse's. Because David didn't work the first year, we didn't have to pay any of his student loan.

Thanks Justine, that's what I thought. I wouldn't want (or expect) my wifes income to be taken in it.

[visacat 1]

This is great news - im sure this threshold has increased since I last checked

I just double checked and it is definitely 15000 GBP per year before deductions for tax.

This is the link for reference

http://www.studentloanrepayment.co.uk/portal/page?_pageid=93,3867143&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

Edited August 27, 2011 by visacat

[fozzie 41]

In a past life I worked in the personal insolvency sector (in the UK) and would say it's a myth that debts go away after 6, 10 or however many years. I had a client once that forgot he'd had a credit card with a bank 15 years ago. He dissapeared without paying it. Then he applied for a new credit card one day with the same bank and they said "ah ha!!, we've found you" - you owe us from 15 years ago and pursued him for the money. I think some companies VOLUNTARILY write off some debts if it gets to a certain point, however you have no legal right to tell them after x amount of time that the debt is no longer valid. There's nothing about that in any credit agreement.

I'll be moving to the US later this year. The only debt I have is a Student Loan. I've been reading their information this morning (http://www.studentlo...&_schema=PORTAL) and as I understand it I have to pay 9% on any earning over £15000 (about $24400).

I worked this out to be, on an example of earning $30,000:

$30000 income

deduct $24400 threshold

= $5600

9% of $5600 = $504 per year ($42 per month)

Does anyone else pay a Student Loan from the US? Am I working this out right?

They seem to assess my income in pounds rather than dollars because my salary didnt change last year but my repayments almost doubled. I think the exchange rate went in the wrong direction and all of a sudden my salry looked bigger in pounds even tough it hadnt moved in dollars.